Shadows Within: Prison
by Ayumi Elric
Summary: Al was thrown into the prison of his own mind and ended up face to face with his darker side.


**Okay, well, I was looking through my files for no reason, and I noticed this one oneshot I never put up that I wrote during the summer. So I read it, thought about it for a bit, decided it barely made sense and posted it. Perfectly logical, isn't it?**

**---**

Black mist shrouded the floors from sight, leaving behind the illusion of a bottomless chasm at first lance. The room was made up of three walls of steel and a wall of rusted bars, a door cut into it. The wall opposite the door had chains attached to it, currently empty. The door slid open, making a loud clanking sound that echoed through the cell.

Alphonse was thrown into the prison. The door shut and locked on its own. He was trapped.

Once warm liquid amber eyes hardened into frozen gems that drove themselves into his prisoner. A sneer twisted his lips as he watched him strain o the chains that had his hands bound to the wall behind him.

Alphonse glared at the boy who had stolen his face, repeatedly tugging on his chains to try to weaken tem. "Envy…!" He growled simply, his eyes narrowing.

"Envy?" The boy repeated with a small chuckle. His voice matched his perfectly, if only just weighed down slightly with malevolence. "You're jealous of me? How…quaint." He laughed softly at his little joke as Al stared angrily. "But no, Alphonse. I'm not some homunculus. No, I'm far worse then that." He paused, bending over until his identical face was just inches in front of Al's. "I'm you."

A bead of sweat dripped down his face. "Impossible…you're lying!" He replied quickly, his voice coming out sounding wrong as his throat went dry. He swallowed hard. "You have to be…"

"Then why are you so nervous?" Al's counterpart asked with a sneer, reaching a hand to touch his cheek, which made him cringe. "I'm another side of you, Alphonse. Your darker side. You didn't think you could hide from me forever, did you?"

"Dark…" Al breathed out through shock. Memories flashed before his eyes, memories of himself sitting alone in a dark room as anger and regret consumed his contained soul, hours alone talking to his shadows. His darker side's eyes lit up. "An uncreative thing to call me but yes. It's good you remember me now." Dark stood up, grazing his nail across Al's cheek, hard enough to draw a single drop of scarlet blood from the red scratch.

"You couldn't have thought you could create me then keep me trapped here." Dark whispered, bending before his face again. Poking his tongue out, he gently licked the blood away. "So sweet." He murmured, closing his eyes.

"I…created you?" Al echoed in a whisper, his eyes blanking as the truth smacked him in the face. Dark's eyes snapped open in response, and he smiled. "Anger, regret, guilt, sadness, bloodlust. All of it you kept bottled up inside. For too long, Alphonse. I'm ending this now." Dark straightened once again, drawing his hand back o touch his own cheek, where a drop of blood was simultaneously dripping from an identical scratch. He wiped it off his face and licked it off his finger.

"You want to kill, Alphonse. And look…this face…it's so innocent…nobody would suspect someone this pure would be a murderer. That's what makes it so fun!"

"Don't you dare!" Alphonse snarled, baring his teeth in anger. The same look of rage was reflected on Dark's face as he lifted a hand and whipped it across Al's face. Alphonse cried out in pain, his bronze bangs falling in front of his eyes, shadowing them. Dark closed his eyes and sighed, touching his face when he had hit Al and winced. "You'd do the same to me if your hands were free, no? Using rage against me won't work, Alphonse. I _am_ your rage."

Dark smiled as he turned his back on his creator, a mad glint flashing in his eyes. "I'm leaving you now. I'm sure to have fun on the outside." He sneered as he walked to the barred door and slid it open with another echoing clank. "I'll tell _our_ brother you said hello." Throwing his head back, Dark Alphonse laughed hard as he left, slamming the door shut that left a loud resonating ring through the prison.

Left alone, Alphonse stared down at the masked ground, his eyes blank behind shadows. "What have I done?" He whispered, closing his eyes in shame as a tear ran fast down his cheek.

And unknown to him, just outside his cell his darker side stood, shuddering as a tear fell down his face. "Ignorant fool." He muttered, turning on his heel and vanishing in a spurt of black smoke.

_-Owari_


End file.
